Content can include, but is not limited to, images, pictures, video, illustrations, drawings, graphics, symbols, text, and audio recordings. This content can be digitized and embodied in an electronic format that can be communicated over a network and/or included in a processor readable media. Typical content users for commercial purposes include advertisers, publishers, media companies, graphic designers, and the like. Additionally, there are several methods for identifying a particular instance of selected content, including comparisons to original content (digital fingerprint), and unique identifiers that are attached to the selected content. The unique identifiers can be included in the header of a file and/or injected into the content itself.
It is often difficult for content users to determine the actual source of content that they currently possess. Also, it can be inconvenient to determine if a content user needs to obtain a license to use selected/possessed content for a particular commercial purpose. Consequently, even good corporate citizens often inadvertently and unintentionally violate their licenses or use content without any licenses at all.
Current methods for verifying license rights for selected content are often labor and time intensive for both the content provider and their customers. Also, typical Digital Rights Management (DRM) solutions negatively impact user workflow and depend on almost non-existent industry standards and co-operation. Additionally, current tagging methods for content can degrade quality and are often easily circumvented with relatively standard editing techniques and tools.